Trend 6: Portfolio Education

Portfolio Education

A portfolio career is a career made up of several different jobs, typically the term is used by non-exec directors and freelancers.

Education is quite broken at the moment, it costs a lot, and doesn't really deliver very much, into a market that changes very fast. Home education is growing, online options are expanding and traditional schools are teaching to their assessment targets, pretty much.

Learners will become more choosy, looking at their interests and work aspirations and choosing a variety of options to get there. This becomes a lifelong process for those that engage with it. It also places those that take all the default choices at a disadvantage, so wealthy middle classes are going to be more likely to take advantage of the new options. However, many are cheap / free (iTunes U, many online sources), so the possibility is there.

I think this is one to embrace, continuous learning, including as adults, is more or less a requirement in order not to get left behind. So, portfolio education, using school, home ed, online and other resources. Mainstream education seems to be in crisis, but individuals need not be.

My eldest is currently 11, she's been home ed until 9, privately educated for two years, into state secondary, but looking at doing extra courses they don't offer. The 10 year old is very keen on moving to Japan as an adult, and is learning Japanese from iPad apps. We're looking at doing city break visits to give them a flavour for foreign university cities, rather than UK based, while they still have time to become fluent in another language.

The larger trend here, is more options due to globalisation and global networks. It applies in other areas, which I'll try to delve into.